Royal Enfield Sanamahhi Motors Imphal dealership inaugurated

Royal Enfield inaugurated its newest showroom Sanamahhi Motors in Singjamei Chongtham Leikai, Imphal. Royal Enfield’s authorised dealership in Manipur celebrated the store opening with I Hemochandra Singh, Minister of PHED and Labour and Employment as Chief Guest. He also flagged off a Royal Enfield road show.

Despite no showroom until now, Manipur has about 300 Royal Enfield riders/owners. And while they are spirited riders, getting quality service or spare parts has been difficult. Sanamahhi Motors dealership also houses a fully equipped service centre and trained mechanics.

Past few years has seen the number of Royal Enfield riders in the state grow. Royal Enfield has 307 dealerships pan India and is focusing on North East, especially Manipur and Assam. Royal Riders Manipur has been instrumental in getting riders together and organising activities here. 6th edition of North East Riders’ Meet (NERM) is scheduled for 5-7-Nov-2014 at South Loushing near Chingnungkhok, Lamlai, Imphal.

At the end of January 2014, 4 Australian riders (Peter Jones, Scott Dekker, Brad Fry, and Ray Lindner) began a 63 day, 7500 mile/12,000km charity ride on vintage Royal Enfield motorcycles through Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and then on to Perth for their Australian leg to Melbourne to film a documentary and raise money for Australian charity Interplast.

After a long detour around Bangladesh, the riders reached Nagaland and Manipur having first crossed Patna. The North eastern regions that feel very different to the rest of India entailed a border crossing at Nagaland guarded by heavy military presence, and foreigners have only recently started entering these areas. The 10 armed women guards at the border welcomed the riders.

With breakdowns to be dealt with and no Enfield dealer in Imphal at the time, the Aussies planned to contact Eddie, a member of the Royal Enfield club, Royal Riders, but with no mobile network coverage, that wasn’t to be. This is when Eddie pulled up on his Royal Enfield having been riding around 2 states looking for them so he could ride with them. The group left from Imphal after meeting more â€˜Royal Ridersâ€™ before heading to the Myanmar border.